Cardiff's Civic Centre is the latest place to find the biggest stars in showbiz.

Action film hero Wesley Snipes was outside City Hall yesterday to film part of his latest flick.

The Blade trilogy star was dressed up as a priest during the filming of The Shooter, which is due for release next year.

Roads around the centre were closed off so that car chases and road blocks could be staged for scenes in the movie.

A security guard said filming had been taking place since 8am in and around City Hall and the National Museum of Wales.

One scene was filmed with Snipes - who he described as 'a very nice, friendly guy' - dressed as a priest being whisked away in the back of a taxi.

South Wales, the home of hit BBC Wales series Dr Who, has increasingly become the location for film and programme makers.

Friends star David Schwimmer, who played Ross in the hit Channel Four show, has recently been filming in the Vale of Glamorgan and a multi- million-pound 'Valleywood' film studio complex at Llanilid between Llanharan and Bridgend is due to open next spring.

But it seems the news of Wesley's arrival in South Wales was kept strictly hush-hush.

Janet Roberts-Thomas, of Cyncoed, Cardiff, works at Central Police Station in Cathays Park and only discovered something was different when she found her usual parking spot taken yesterday.

'We didn't get any warning that this was happening. But it's good for Cardiff,' she said.

Her husband, Dick, 64, added: 'It puts Cardiff on the map and anything which does that is good.'

Julie and Ron Evans, 60 and 67, are regular visitors to the city from their Abergavenny home.